How will you fare under the Senate health bill?

Summary of Senate health bill’s effect on small businesses:

1. eliminates requirement to be insured
2. protects insurers in the marketplace
3. shifts but retains tax credits
4. lowers the number of people eligible for free or reduced price coverage
5. cuts taxes for the wealthy
6. suspends the ‘Cadillac Tax’
7. strips federal funding from Planned Parenthood
8. is surprisingly light-weight; only about 145 pages
9. is not a repeal of Obamacare but instead mostly strengthens and builds upon it.
10.  places restrictions on abortion coverage (changed definition of qualified plan and elimination of small employer credit)
11.  liberalizes withdraws from Health Savings Accounts
12.  removes employer taxes for not providing health insurance
13.  includes option for a work required for non-disabled medicaid recipients
14.  adds a $5,000 federal filing fee for a qualified small business health plan that possible bypasses state regulation?

This is not meant to be a complete analysis. Clearly there are portions of the bill outside of my area of practice that I do not understand. This post is based on the draft version published today; certainly there will be changes as this moves along.

In short, if a version of this bill becomes law then I see a lot of financial planning opportunities for small business owners under the health care reform proposal.

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